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EARLY   PRINCETON    PRINTING 

The  installation  of  the  Princeton  Uni- 
versity Press  in  a  building  of  its  own, 
with  an  equijifttfent  worthy  of  its  affiliations 
and  adequate  to  its  ambitions,  marks  the 
"-beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  tlie  history 
f)!"* printing  in  the  town  of  Princeton.  And 
it  is  to  commemorate  the  event  that  this 
slender  appreciation  of  early  Princeton 
printing  is  put  forth. 

The  history  runs  back  exactly  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  years  to  the  days 
when  the  town  was  still  a  colonial  village 
with  the  scars  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
fresh  upon  it.  when  on  one  side  of  the 
highroad  the  College  of  New  Jersey  was 
still  undergoing  rejjairs,  and  on  the  other 
lay  a  scattered  handful  of  dwelling  houses 
and  little  shops  clustering  about  the  one 
or  two  comfortable  taverns  whose  stage- 
coach business  was  fast  mending  now  that 
the  war  was  over.     Under  President  With- 


1510156 


erspoon's  untiring  efforts  the  College, 
which  for  thirty  years  had  shared  with  the 
taverns  the  honor  of  being  the  community's 
chief  asset,  was  beginning  slowly  to  gather 
itself  together  again,  and  the  village  was 
facing  the  future  bravel}',  confident  in  its 
belief  that  prosperity  for  the  institution 
set  in  its  midst  meant  also  its  own  growth 
and  progress. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Doctor  Wither- 
spoon  lent  his  support  to  the  establishment 
of  a  printing  press  in  the  village.  How- 
ever easily  he  maj^  have  turned  American 
on  his  arrival  from  Scotland  in  1768,  he 
had  never  forgotten  his  mother-country 
nor  waived  aside  a  chance  to  help  a  fellow- 
countryman.  Any  worthy  Scotsman  land- 
ing at  an  American  port,  could  he  but 
make  his  way  to  Princeton,  would  be  sure 
to  find  welcome  and  to  receive  advice  and 
assistance  at  the  hands  of  the  President 
of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  And  so 
it  came  about  that  early  in  1786 — unless 
all  indications  are  at  fault — there  reached 
Princeton  a  young  Scotsman  named  James 
Tod,  a  man  of  more  tlian  average  educa- 
tion and  a  printer  by  trade,  seeking  work. 


Half  a  dozen  othei*  towns  in  New  Jersej' 
at  this  time  could  boast  printing  presses, 
but  none  had  ever  been  set  up  at  Prince- 
ton, The  proximity  of  Trenton,  where 
Isaac  Collins  had  won  a  reputation,  and 
the  wider  jjossibilities  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  had  hitherto  easily  controlled 
all  the  work  for  compositors'  hands  to  do 
that  eighteenths  centurj'  Princeton  could 
offer.  \Vliile,  unfortunately,  there  is  no 
'definite  authority  for  the  belief  one  would 
*  -lijie  to  entertain  that  Doctor  Witlierspoon 
had  some  dim  vision  of  a  future  university 
press  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  educa- 
tion and  scholarship — a  vision  that  has 
needed  tlie  varied  fortunes  of  a  dozen  dec- 
ades to  transform  it  into  reality — -yet  it 
is  reasonably  certain  that,  if  not  at  the 
President's  suggestion  at  least  with  his 
hearty  good  will  and  sup})ort,  Mr.  Tod  re- 
solved to  see  what  opportunity  lay  for  him 
and  his  little  jiress  under  the  shadow  of 
Nassau  Hall ;  and  ojjposite  the  College 
therefore  lie  opened  his  shop.  Meanwhile 
he  had  to  live;  ,'ind  to  liel])  him  eke  out  an 
existence  until  his  ])ress  should  win  a 
clientele   and   be   able  to   sujjport  him,  he 


was    permitted    to   give    French   lessons   in 
the  College. 

His  best  advertisement  would  obvioush' 
be  a  newspaper;  so,  backed  undoubtedly 
l\v  the  interest  of  his  patron,  and  viewing 
undismayed  the  ill-luck  of  Isaac  Collins' 
"New  Jersey  Gazette,"  of  whose  ap- 
])roaching  discontinuance  he  may  have  had 
an  inkling,  he  issued  in  May  or  June  1786, 
the  first  number  of  the  "Princeton  Packet 
and  General  Advertiser,"  Princeton's  first 
newspaper.  That  summer  or  autumn  he 
published  for  the  College  a  catalogue  of 
its  graduates  and  officers,  the  first  to  be 
issued  in  octavo  form;  late  in  1787  he 
l)rinted  President  Witherspoon's  famous 
baccalaureate  sermon  of  1775  on  "Christian 
^lagnanimity,"  with  the  "Address  to  the 
Senior  Class"  which  the  Doctor  had  re- 
peated each  commencement  since  he  first 
delivered  it;  and  later  still  in  the  same 
year,  1787,  he  issued  a  volume  of  sermons 
by  the  President's  friend,  the  Reverend 
John  Muir  of  Bermuda.  And  here  our 
actual  knowledge  of  Mr.  Tod's  work  ends. 
His  output  must  have  been  larger,  but 
these  are  the  only  monuments   at  present 


f      PrmcLton 


Packer, 


\  D  \'   L   R  T  1 


THE    "PRINCETON    PACKET"    FOR   OCTOBER   5,    1786 
PRINTED   BY   JAMES   TOD 


i 


known  of  his  eighteen  months'  stay  at 
Princeton.  Dr.  Witherspoon's  baccalau- 
reate is  a  fairly  common  Revolutionary 
^yal•  item  at  book  auctions ;  the  Catalogue 
and  even  ]\Ir.  Muir's  "Sermons"  appear 
once  in  a  long  while ;  but  copies  of  the 
"Packet"  never  turn  up,  and  a  file  of  the 
newspaper  remains  to  be  discovered.  It 
was  a  little  foiia--page  weekly  about  eight- 
een inches  long  and  ten  wide,  with  three 
;^columns  to  the  page.  In  the  title-line  a 
-^oodcut  of  Nassau  Hall  separates  the 
words  "Princeton"  and  "Packet" — the 
woodcut  which  was  used  again  on  the  title- 
page  of  the  Catalogue.  In  the  colojihon 
at  the  bottom  of  the  fourth  i)age  the 
reader  is  informed  that  the  annual  sub- 
scription is  ten  shillings ;  that  advertise- 
ments "of  a  moderate  length"  will  be  in- 
serted at  three  and  ninepence  each,  the 
first  week,  and  one  and  threepence  "for 
every  continiiance,"  and  "long  ones  in  pro- 
jjortion;"  that  "essays  and  articles  of  in- 
telligence" will  be  thankfully  received  by 
the  printer;  and  that  at  his  office  "print- 
ing work  will  be  performed  witli  fidelity 
and  expedition." 

9 


Oul}'  five  iimnbei's  have  been  located, 
although  the  paper  I'an  for  more  than  a 
year.  It  is  the  rarest  of  Princeton  im- 
jirints. 

GalL'int  though  Mr.  Tod's  experiment 
was,  and  eharniing  typographically  as 
were  his  productions — the  "Packet"  and 
\\'itlierspooirs  sermon  being  especially  at- 
tractive jjieees  of  printing — it  became  evi- 
dent very  soon  that  Princeton  could  not 
support  a  jjress ;  and  late  in  1787  Tod  ac- 
cepted a  position  as  classical  master  of 
Erasmus  Hall,  a  school  newly  incorpor- 
ated at  Flatbush,  Long  Island.  Here  he 
remained  rive  years,  moving  then  to  a  pri- 
vate academy  at  New  Utrecht,  where  in 
1802,  at  the  age  of  50,  he  died,  leaving  a 
widow  and  seven  children. 

When  one  fingers  the  yellowing  pages 
of  Tod's  "Packet"  and  his  little  booklets 
with  tlieir  rag  paper,  their  clear  type  and 
even  press-work,  one  suspects  that  here 
was  a  man  who  loved  his  art  and  would 
have  continued  to  practise  it  "with  fidel- 
ity," had  not  the  relentless  exigencies  of 
life  forced  him  from  his  calling  into  more 
lucrative    employment.       Local    lovers    of 

10 


good  printing  must  ever  regret  the  condi- 
tionSj  unavoidable  but  not  surprising,  that 
drove  James   Tod  away  from  Princeton. 

His  four  imprints  are  characteristic  of 
the  local  field — a  newspaper,  a  college  offi- 
cial jjublication,  a  discourse,  a  volume  of 
collected  sermons.  Under  these  headings, 
with  the  additional  one  of  town  ephemera, 
may  be  classified  pretty  completely,  and 
under  the  circumstances  rather  obviously, 
the  output  of  the  local  presses  until  very 
.jrecent  years.  Examination  of  the  list  of 
Princeton  imprints  during  the  last  centurj' 
and  a  quarter  would  show  that  the  College 
and  Seminary  have  ordinarily  supplied 
regular  annual  jobs,  that  the  predominant 
presence  of  clerical  and  academic  resi- 
dents in  Princeton  has  produced  a  stream 
of  sermons  and  occasional  addresses,  that 
a  goodly  array  of  pietistic  works  has  been 
issued,  that  local  religious  and  philan- 
throjDic  organizations  have  supplied  their 
quota  of  reports  and  occasional  publica- 
tions, that  textbooks,  scientific  works  and 
books  for  the  general  reader  have  been 
given  but  rarely  to  a  local  firm,  their 
chance  of  success  being  greater  if  handled 

1  1 


elsewhere^  and  that,  finally,  almost  every 
Princeton  jjrinter  since  Tod's  day  has 
tried  his  liand  at  a  newspaper,  and  has 
never  been  flattered  by  material  success. 

The  lesson  of  Tod's  failure  was  well 
learned.  l''or  thirty-five  years  after  his 
de])arturc  ])rinting  was  a  lost  art  in 
Princeton.  But  early  in  1821  David  A. 
Borrenstein  ojjened  an  office,  and  with  him 
])rinting  returned  to  stay.  The  location  of 
the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,  the 
interest  of  tlie  times  in  religion,  and  the 
feverish  activity  of  town  and  gown  in  dis- 
seminatinij  religious  readina;  matter  liad 
brightened  innneasural)ly  tlie  business  out- 
look for  any  prospective  local  press.  And 
it  will  be  observed  that  during  his  four 
busy  years  at  Princeton,  Mr.  Borrenstein 
])rinted  scarcely  anything  outside  of  the 
religious  field.  At  a  period  when  America 
was  being  accused  of  abject  intellectual 
.subserviency  to  Great  Britain,  one  looks 
in  vain  for  a  Princeton  reprint  of  any  of 
the  masterjjieces  of  Englisli  prose  or 
])oetry  that  were  being  read  in  America. 
Contemporary  Princeton  booksellers'  ad- 
vertisements of  new  books   are  invariably 

12 


CATAT,OGUS 

COLLEGli                      i 

v^                                     4k 

.N^t5-C^§ARIENSIS. 


■^^sg??'*'i^'f;-??----,r 


P  R  I  N  C  L^p  N: 
E    Typis     j  A  C  O  D  I J  T  O  D. 
•       M.DfC.LXXXVIl 


CATALOGUE  OF   GRADUATES   AND    OFFICERS 
PRINTED   BY   JAMES    TOD,    1786 


limited  to  theological  and  controversial 
works,  or  to  pietistic  and  devotional  books, 
and  the  conclusion  can  hardly  be  evaded 
that  if  secular  literature  had  any  place  in 
the  community's  reading  it  was  scarcely 
through  local  dealers,  and  certainly  not 
through  local  editions.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  was  the  age  of  religious  magazines  and 
religious  weeklies,  and  in  this  character- 
,  istic  the  age  was  amply  reflected  at  Prince- 
fifn.  From  the  viewpoint  of  literature, 
life  here  must  have  been  a  grave  matter  in 
those  days. 

Exactly  when  or  how  Mr.  Borrenstein 
came  to  settle  in  Princeton  has  been  im- 
possible to  discover;  but  in  May  1824  Dr. 
James  W.  Alexander  could  still  speak  of 
his  press  as  a  novelty  to  Princeton  chil- 
dren, "great  and  small."  That  the  new- 
comer received  definite  assurances  of  sup- 
l)ort  is  clear  not  only  from  his  own  words; 
but  from  the  character  of  the  enterprises; 
on  which  he  immediately  embarked.  In 
July  1824  he  issued  this  notice: 

The  subscriber  having  established  a 
Printing  Office  in  this  place,  under  the 
immediate      ])atronage      of      the      Literary 

13 


Gentlemtn  who  reside  here,  takes  this 
opportunity  of  res])ectt'ully  soliciting  the 
favours  of  liis  friends  and  the  ))ublie  gen- 
erally. He  has  furnished  his  Office  with 
new  and  handsome  Types,  &c ;  and  ven- 
tures to  assure  those  who  may  confide  to 
him  the  printing  of  works  of  any  descri lo- 
tion, that  every  eifort  and  assiduity  will 
be  used  by  him  to  execute  the  typographi- 
cal part  with  neatness  and  accuracy. 
Princeton.  X.  J.  D.  A.  Borrenstein. 

July   18^2  1.. 

Already  in  ^lay  he  had  sent  out  pro- 
jjosals  for  i)ublishing  a  .weekly  paper  to 
be  called  the  "Princeton  Religious  and 
IJterary  (iazette."  No  copy  of  this  paper 
can  be  found,  and  it  probably  did  not 
long  survive  its  birth,  for  in  April  1825 
its  printer  began  another  weekly,  the 
"American  Journal  of  Letters.  Christian- 
ity and  Civil  Affairs,"  edited  by  the  Rev- 
erend Robert  Gibson,  and  published  by  T. 
Callaghan  Gibson.  Well  printed  though 
its  four  quarto  pages  were,  its  sixteen  col- 
umns of  heavy  reading  matter  devoted  to 
the  promotion  of  education,  religion,  and 
public  affairs,  ])roved  too  solid  an  in- 
tellectual   diet   to    win    ]iopularity    or   even 

11 


support,  and  some  moiitlis  later — in  Janu- 
ary 1 826 — aj)peared  its  successor,  the 
"American  Magazine  of  Letters  and 
Christianity.  "  a  monthly  octavo  of  sixty- 
eight  })ages.  excellently  printed,  as  usual, 
but  containing  more  varied  and  general 
reading  than  its  predecessor.  Only  four 
issues  of  this  attractive  looking  periodical 
seem  to  have  bt^n  saved;  and,  indeed,  it  is 
doubtful  whetlier  any  more  were  published. 
'♦««I)iscouraging  though  these  failures  must 
'  "Kave  been  to  their  jjromoters,  nevertheless 
they  were  steadily  clearing  the  way  for 
the  "Biblical  Repertory,"  which  was  to 
live  and  become  famous  under  its  more 
popular  name  the  "Princeton  Review." 

The  news])aper  ambitio}i  was  however 
still  alive  in  Borrenstein's  mind,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1826,  for  a  group  of  unnamed 
proprietors,  he  began  tlie  "Xew  Jersey 
Patriot,"  a  genuine  political  weekly  news- 
paper at  last,  of  four  folio  pages  of  five 
columns,  and  boasting  the  patronage  of 
"a  great  number  of  the  literary  men  of 
the  state."  For  some  reason  Jiorrenstein 
dropped  out  in  tJie  foHowing  April,  and 
with  difficulty  another  printer.  A.  E.  Wer- 

15 


den,  was  obtained;  but,  tlircf  months  later, 
he  resumed  his  connection,  and  a  new — and 
fatal — editorial  policy  was  announced. 
The  "Patriot"  was  to  be  less  political  and 
more  literar}^,  "religion,  morality,  letters 
and  political  science  being  entitled  to  the 
first  consideration  for  the  true  patriot," 
as  the  announcement  phrased  it.  But  this 
admirable  assertion  did  not  elicit  the  en- 
thusiastic approval  of  subscribing  pat- 
riots, true  or  otherwise;  the  semi-literar}' 
magazine  quality,  religious  or  secular,  was 
evidently  just  what  they  did  not  want; 
and  the  "New  Jersey  Patriot"  speedily 
joined  the  "Packet,"  the  "Gazette,"  and 
the  "Journal"  in  the  haven  of  lost  argo- 
sies. 

Meanwhile  his  newspaper  and  magazine 
projects  had  by  no  means  monopolized  the 
activities  of  Borrenstein's  press.  In  Sep- 
tember 182i<,  he  commenced  the  issue  of 
"A  Series  of  Tracts  on  Practical  Religion, 
consisting  of  Selections  from  the  Works 
of  various  Authors."  These  little  pamph- 
lets were  issued  monthly,  forming  for  the 
year  1824-25  a  first  volume  of  two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-six  pages,  and  for   1825- 

16 


•26  a  second  volume  of  two  hundred  and 
ninety-five  pages.  The  advertisement  tells 
us  that  these  tracts  would  be  "to  the  pious 
ttoth  entertaining  and  useful,"  and  that  it 
Avas  the  purpose  of  the  printer  to  furnish  "a 
neat  volume"  each  year;  but,  in  spite  of  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  the  tracts  did  not  meet 
sufficient  encouragement .  and  the  series 
ended  witli  tlie  second  volume.  In  no  wise 
.  daunted,  Borrenstein  was  ready  with  an- 
pjlier  project  for  giving  the  public  edify- 
ing literature.  In  1 8*26  he  issued  two  or 
three  booklets  illustrating  his  intention, 
should  it  meet  Avith  faA^or,  "to  ])rint  in 
regular  succession  all  such  small  Avorks  on 
Practical  Christianity  as  may  be  either 
nearly  out  of  i)rint,  or  Avhich  may  be  Avorth 
republisliing  from  English  editions."  Ex- 
amples of  these  Avere  Baxter's  "Call  to 
the  Unconverted"  (1826)  and  his  "Saints' 
Rest"  (1827),  Alleine's  "Solemn  Warn- 
ings of  the  Dead"  (1826),  which  gloomy 
Avork  went  into  a  second  edition  in  1828, 
Hannah  More's  "Sacred  Dramas"  (1826). 
and  Grace  Kennedy's  "The  Decision,  or, 
Reli<jion  must  l)i-  all,  or  is  nothing" 
{1827).       A     dislinetly    more     pretentious 

17 


work  was  a  translation  of  Saurin's  "Ser- 
mons" in  two  volumes  (18^27),  with  a 
beautifully  engraved  portrait  of  the  author 
by  Dui'and.  Another  feature  of  this  book 
was  the  rather  clumsy  printer's  device  on 
the  titlepage — the  initials  D  and  B  of  en- 
twined grapevine  tendrils,  and  surrounded 
by  a  wreath  of  nondescript  foliage.  At 
the  same  time,  the  Princeton  Press,  as 
yir.  Borrenstein  called  his  office,  was  is- 
suing a  constantly  growing  stream  of  ad- 
dresses and  sermons,  annual  reports  for 
local  societies.  College  catalogues  and  pro- 
grammes, the  catalogue  of  the  Princeton 
Library  Company  (IS^o).  venerable  an- 
cestor of  the  twentieth  century  Public  Li- 
brary, and  special  reprints,  or  new  edi- 
tions, of  standard  w^orks  like  Alexander's 
"Outlines  of  the  Evidences  of  Christi- 
anity" and  Paley's  "Natural  Theology;" 
and  when  Mr.  S.  J.  Bayard  of  Princeton 
brought  to  the  office  the  manuscript  of  his 
narrative  poem  "Mengw^e"  (1825),  he  gave 
]\Ir.  Borrenstein  the  chance  to  put  forth 
his  prettiest  piece  of  printing.  But  prob- 
ably the  most  interesting  product  of  the 
Princeton    Press,   and   decidedly   the   most 


significant  from  an  academic  point  of  view,, 
was  Eorrenstein's  edition  of  the  "Seven 
Against  Thebes"  by  Aeschylus,  the  first 
classical  text  to  bear  a  Princeton  imprint, 
and  one  of  the  earliest  American  editions 
of  the  play.  It  was  published  "under  the 
care  and  direction  of  the  Senior  Class  of 
Nassau  Hall,!^  so  the  title-page  tells  us,. 
and  is  wortli  noticing  not  only  as  a  speci- 
..  men  of  early  Princeton  typography,  but 
"also  because  it  is  the  fruitage  of  the  tirst 
advanced  classical  work  done  by  Prince- 
ton undergraduates.  It  Avas  prepared  un- 
der the  supervision  of  Professor  Robert 
Bridges  Patton  who  had  been  elected  in 
April  1825  to  the  chair  of  Languages  at 
Princeton.  A  graduate  of  Yale  in  the 
class  of  1817,  he  was  one  of  that  pioneer 
group  of  American  students  in  Germany 
to  which  Everett  and  Bancroft  belonged,, 
and,  taking  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Phil- 
osophy at  Gottingen  in  1821,  he  was  the 
first  member  of  the  Princeton  faculty  to 
hold  a  German  degree.  He  at  once  in- 
troduced his  graduate  students  and  his 
advanced  seniors  to  the  methods  of  Ger- 
man    scholarshij),     organizing     along     the 

19 


lines  of  a  German  seminar  the  "Philo- 
logical Society  of  Nassau  Hall,"  and  plac- 
ing at  their  disposal,  in  one  of  the  rooms 
in  Nassau  Hall,  his  private  library  of  1 500 
volumes.  In  this  room  regular  meetings 
were  held  until  his  resignation  in  1829. 
His  brief  career — he  died  in  1839 — was 
one  of  enviable  reputation  and  brightest 
promise. 

In  December  1825,  a  month  after  his 
arrival  in  Princeton,  he  had  delivered  in 
the  college  chapel,  before  the  I>iterary  and 
Philosophical  Society  of  New  Jersey,  a 
lecture  on  "Classical  and  National  Educa- 
tion." which  may  be  considered  as  his  in- 
augural, and  which  was  printed  by  Bor- 
renstein  for  the  Society  in  1826.  In  this 
lecture  the  reader,  not  too  scornful  to  be 
curious  of  the  beginnings  of  classical 
scholarshi])  in  Princeton,  may  find  ideas 
stirring  that  seem  to  harbinger  modern 
times,  ideas  even  more  jjlainly  discernible 
in  the  Philological  Society's  list  of  its 
aims,  printed  in  1828  in  the  catalogue  of 
its  library. 

In  1827  Borrenstein  added  a  new  peri- 
odical   to    his    record — the    "New    Jersey 

20 


SEVEN     BEFOHE     THEBESi 

^  rr,-iarll5  of  3f«t1i!>lHf>. 


THB   SENIOR   0LAS3    OF    ItASSAU    BAIJ. 


AESCHYLUS'      "SEVEN    AGAINST   THEBES- 
PRINTED  BY  D    A.  BORRENSTEIN.  1828 


Sabbath  School  Journal,"'  which  ran  into 
at  least  a  third  year,  as  the  "New  Jersey 
Sunday  School  Journal." 

Whatever  one  may  think  of  the  content 
of  Borrenstein's  publications^  at  least  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  in  form  his 
work  is  usually  pleasing;  but  his  judg- 
ment failed  him  in  the  German  New  Tes- 
tament  he  pmited  in  1828.  It  is  the 
most  unattractive — as  it  is  also  one  of  the 
'■"barest — of  his  imjjrints.  The  copy  in  the 
Library  of  Princeton  University  is  a  duo- 
decimo on  bluish  grey  paper  with  mottled 
edges,  producing  an  effect  that  is  the  op- 
posite of  artistic.  The  plates  were  stereo- 
typed   in    Philadelphia. 

For  ]Messrs.  G.  and  C.  Carvill  of  New 
York  he  had  i)rinted  in  1  827  a  New  Testa- 
ment in  English,  arranged  by  a  student  in 
the  Seminary  on  what  was  then  a  novel 
plan,  i.e.,  in  ijaragraphs  instead  of  verses 
and  chapters.  The  notes  and  critical  ap- 
paratus made  this  the  most  intricate  piece 
of  composition  that  the  Princeton  Press 
had  yet  been  called  upon  to  do. 

But  there  remains  to  be  noticed  the 
jxriodical     with    wliosc    nu'chanical    tx'gin- 

21 


nings  Borrcnstcin's  name  must  al\va3s  be 
associated.  In  1825  Dr.  Charles  Hodge 
of  Princeton  Seminary  formed  the  plan 
of  issuing  quarterly,  under  the  name  "The 
Biblical  Repertory,"  a  series  of  treatises 
or  "dissertations  principalh'  in  Biblical 
Literature."  The  field  was  unoccupied  in 
America;  and  Dr.  Hodge  felt  that  the 
Presbyterian  Church  was  falling  behind 
tile  age  in  this  kind  of  literature.  "The 
difficulty  of  procuring  books,  or  the  disin- 
clination to  read  anything  not  written  in 
our  own  language,  has  led  to  a  lamenta- 
ble neglect  of  one  intei*esting  department 
of  Theological  Learning."  The  object  of 
the  proposed  series  was  to  give  American 
students  of  divinity  the  benefits  of  modern 
English  and  German  theological  thought. 
The  first  three  volumes  of  the  "Repertory" 
were  })rinted  by  ]?orrcnstein.  But  four 
years'  experiment  led  Dr.  Hodge  to  con- 
clude that  the  time  had  not  arrived  when 
such  a  periodical  could  be  adequately  sup- 
ported in  America  ;  and,  beginning  with  the 
fifth  volume  (1829).  a  new  series  was 
started,  with  a  change  in  the  character  of 
the     magazine,     wliereby     its     scope     was. 


broadened  and  it  btcanie  more  of  a  re- 
view of  general  religious  thought,  life,  and 
literature.  This  is  not  the  place  to  follow 
the  history'  of  the  "Repertory"  through 
the  long  cycle  of  changes  in  name  and 
place  and  printer  by  which  it  at  last  came 
back  to  almost  the  identical  spot  where  its 
first  number  was  set  up;  that  task  has 
been  done  by  ''Tuany  a  librarian,  and  the 
desiccated  record  thereof  may  be  found  in 
.-the  catalogue  of  any  library  lucky  enough 
"ti)^ --Ijossess  the  complete  set.  But  it  is 
pleasant,  at  least,  to  remember  that  it  be- 
gan its  life  of  almost  four  score  years 
and  ten  in  the  humble  printing-shop  of 
David  Borrenstein. 

Mr.  Borrenstein  drops  out  of  the  history 
of  Princeton  printing  as  suddenly  and 
silently  as  he  had  entered  it.  His  name 
appears  in  connection  with  the  Princeton 
Press  until  the  middle  of  1828.  and  then 
without  warning  its  place  is  taken  by  Wil- 
liam D'Hart,  publisher,  and  Bernard  Con- 
nolly and  Hugh  Madden,  printers,  names 
so  bookishly  promising  that  one  cannot 
help  regretting  the  absolute  silence  of  lo- 
cal history  as  to  the  personalities  of  their 

23 


owners.  Connollj-  seems  to  have  left  the 
firm  in  1829,  taking  the  Princeton  Press 
imprint  with  liim.  Hugh  ISIadden  con- 
tinued to  use  the  Borrenstein  types,  his 
most  important  issue  being  the  first  vol- 
ume in  the  new  series  of  the  "Repertory." 
He  also  covered  most  of  the  work  for  the 
College  and  Seminary  during  the  next 
year  or  two.  but  after  1830  his  name  no 
longer  appears. 

AV'illiam  D'Hart,  who  kept  a  stationery 
and  book  store  where  one  could  purchase 
abnost  anything  from  hair  oil  to  "Chinese 
eciiunt.  '  liad  betn  ])ublishing  in  a  small 
way  since  IS^?.  For  a  brief  time  he 
:seems  to  hnvv  been  sole  owner  of  a  ])ress, 
but  in  1831  lie  joined  forces  with  Connolly 
in  taking  up  a  new  venture  in  local  jour- 
nalism, the  "Princeton  Courier  and  Liter- 
ary Register,"  a  weekly  which  lived  about 
four  years  under  various  editors,  but  with 
Connolly  as  printer.  When  the  latter 
moved  to  Freehold  in  the  late  thirties  the 
"Courier"  went  out  of  existence. 

In  1831,  while  he  was  still  his  own 
])rinter.  D'Hart  produced  for  New  York 
and    Boston    ])ublishers    Dr.    Samuel    JNIil- 

21. 


ler's  well  known  essay  on  the  "Office  of 
the  Ruling  Elder;"  and  in  connection  with 
that  enterprise  a  letter  has  been  preserved 
which  contains  some  indication  of  the 
financial  returns  a  contemporary  author 
of  Dr.  Miller's  standing  might  expect. 

Rev'd  Sir 

I  send  youv^S  dollars  which  is  the 
amount  we  were  to  pay  for  the  privilege 
of  publishing  your  work  on  the  Eldership. 
'"I"  hope  you  will  excuse  me  for  not  at- 
tetiding  to  it  sooner.  An  nother  edition  of 
the  work  is  called  for.  We  would  be  glad 
to  have  the  liberty  of  publishing  on  your 
own  terms. 

Very  Respectfully  Yours, 

Wm.  D'Hart. 
Feb.  20th,  1832. 

P.  S.     I  send  you  3  Copies  "Secreta  Mon- 
ita"  which  you  will  please  accept  from 
Your  humble  servant 

W.  D. 

The  second  edition  duly  aj^jjeared  in 
1832  and  was  identical  with  the  first,  but 
was  printed  by  the  new  firm,  D'Hart  and 
Connolly.  The  Essay  was  frequently  re- 
])ublished  elsewhere  though  never  after 
1832   at   Princeton.      It  mav  be  stated   in 


25 


passing  that  the  "Secreta  Monita/'  refer- 
red to  in  the  letter,  was  an  edition  of 
the  "Secret  Instructions  of  the  Jesuits" 
printed  by  D'Hart  in  1831  in  two  edi- 
tions, one  with  the  Latin  text,  and  the 
other  without,  "in  order  to  reduce  the 
price,"  as  the  printer's  notice  puts  it. 

About  this  time,  ]\Ioore  Baker,  another 
bookseller,  entered  the  battle  of  the  types. 
His  most  notable  otiering  was  the  first 
American  edition  of  Mrs.  ^lary  ^Martha 
Sherwood's  innocent  novel,  "The  Nun." 
It  appeared  in  ISSi,  and  is  apparently  the 
only  work  of  prose  fiction  bearing  a 
Princeton  publisher's  name  that  has  come 
to  light.  In  the  spring  of  1835  Mr.  Baker 
announced  the  formation  of  a  circulating 
library  in  connection  with  his  bookshop. 
It  was  to  contain  select  works,  and  new 
books  would  be  added  as  they  came  out. 
This  librai'v  may  have  been  the  successor 
of  the  Princeton  Library  Companj'  of  the 
previous  decade.  Mr.  Baker  further 
showed  his  progressiveness  b}^  jniblish- 
ing  in  1835  for  Dr.  E.  C.  Wines,  principal 
of  Edgehill  School  in  Princeton,  the 
"Monthly   Journal  of  Education,"   one  of 

26 


the  two  American  periodicals  of  the  time^ 
so  its  editor  claims,  devoted  solely  to  edu- 
cation. It  was  printed  by  a  young  man 
named  Robert  E.  Hornor,  then  just  be- 
ginning his  career.  A  perusal  of  the  few- 
numbers  preserved  in  the  Universit}^  Li- 
brary leads  to  the  suspicion  that  the 
"Journal"  was  in  reality  a  skillfully  veiled 
advertisement -6^  the  institution  that  Dr. 
Wines  so  ably  directed.  The  history  and 
'»fiiethods  of  Edgehill  School  are  writ  large 
'  iipoti  its  pages.  Admirably  produced 
though  it  was,  it  nevertheless  soon  in- 
creased by  one  the  dismal  ranks  of  Prince- 
ton magazine  failures. 

It  was  during  these  early  years  that  ^Ir. 
Hornor  printed  for  its  pseudonymous  au- 
thor a  remarkable  volume  which  enjoyed 
unprecedented  popularity  and  is  believed 
to  have  been  Princeton's  first  illustrated 
book,  viz..  Captain  Onesimus'  "Christ  Re- 
jected: or,  the  Trial  of  the  Eleven  Dis- 
ciples of  Christ,  in  a  Court  of  Law  and 
Equity,  as  charged  with  stealing  the  Cruci- 
fied Body  of  Christ,  out  of  the  Sepulchre." 
The  third  edition  was  issued  in  1835  with 
a    copyright    dated    1832.      The    first    and 

27 


second  editions  have  not  been  seen.  A 
detailed  descrij)tion  of  this  book  would 
be  out  of  place  here ;  but,  taking  into  con- 
sideration its  contents,  its  style,  its  in- 
numerable woodcuts  and  its  delicious  an- 
iichronisms,  one  may  safely  assert  that  it 
is  the  most  curious  volume  ever  printed 
in  Princeton. 

From  1833  to  1841  the  records  show 
another  new  name,  that  of  John  D.  Bogart, 
a  son  of  i\Ir.  Peter  Bogart,  the  Steward  of 
the  Seminary.  Learning  the  trade  in 
Princeton,  he  had  printed  several  of  the 
Seminary's  annual  catalogues  when  his 
career  was  cut  short  by  his  death  in  1  8  12, 
at  the  age  of  31. 

And  here  the  second  period  of  the  his- 
tory of  printing  in  Princeton  may  be  said 
to  end ;  and  with  the  arrival  of  the  name 
of  R.  E.  Hornor,  the  modern  period  be- 
gins. 

Robert  Emley  Hornor  was  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  John  Hornor,  the  early  set- 
tler whose  public  spirit  assisted  in  locat- 
ing the  College  of  New  Jersey  at  Prince- 
ton. Controlling  a  tannery  and  a  pottery 
manufactory    at    Queenston,    on    the    out- 

28 


skirts  of  Princeton;,  he  seems  to  luive  been 
possessed  of  some  little  means.  In  Sep- 
tember 1832  he  had  established  in  oppo- 
sition to  Connolly's  Democratic  "Courier," 
which  supported  Jackson  and  Van  Buren, 
a  paper  called  the  "American  System  and 
Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  Advocate,"  sup- 
porting the  protection  of  American  indus- 
tries and  the  election  of  the  National  Re- 
publican, or  Whig,  candidates,  Clay  and 
'"-Sergeant.  After  the  campaign  he  assumed 
'  the  editorship  himself  and  a  new  firm,  that 
of  John  T.  Robinson,  took  charge  of  the 
mechanical  end.  The  name  of  the  paper 
was  changed  to  the  "Princeton  Whig"  and 
from  this  period  dates  the  present  weekly 
newspaper,  the  "Princeton  Press"  edited 
by  Mr.  Edwin  ]\I.  Norris.  Mr.  Hornor's 
Quaker  affiliation  is  shown  in  the  imprint 
of  Ills  i)aper — "published  every  sixth- 
day.  " 

A  new  spirit  enters  Princeton  journal- 
ism with  Mr.  Hornor's  assumption  of  edi- 
torial duties.  Never  did  a  paper  deserve 
its  name  more  thoroughly  than  the  "Whig" 
during  Mr.  Hornor's  regime.  He  was  an 
eager  partisan  and  one  of  the  most  active 

29 


and  widely  known  politicians  in  the  state. 
He  seems  to  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  him- 
self as  an  editor.  Not  content  with  the 
influence  exerted  by  his  weekly,  when 
election  times  came  around  he  was  wont 
to  do  extra  work  for  his  party  by  issuing 
special  campaign  papers,  such  as  the 
"Thorn"  in  the  autumn  of  183i — an  aptly 
named  little  two  leaf  sheet,  which  was 
sold  for  a  cent  and  was  issued  at  least 
once  a  week  until  the  campaign  was  over. 
That  its  contents  came  practically  from 
his  own  pen  is  naively  revealed  by  a  note 
in  the  only  surviving  number  (September 
27,  1834)  to  the  effect  that  the  "severe 
indisposition  of  the  Editor  must  be  an 
apology  for  the  want  of  interest  or  variety 
in  the  columns  of  this  week's  paper."  But 
the  "Thorn"  so  successfully  justified  its 
name  and  met  with  such  approval  from 
friends  of  the  AVhig  cause,  that  two  years 
later  jNIr.  Hornor  renewed  it  to  counter- 
act what  he  was  pleased  to  call  the  "ser- 
vile collar  press  of  the  Van  Buren  dyn- 
asty." To  those  who  remembered  the 
"Thorn"  of  1834  he  would  merely  an- 
nounce that  the  new  "Thorn"  was  grown 

30 


on  the  same  stalk — "only  a  trifle  sharper 
and  stronger."  Its  object  would  be  to 
"place  information  in  every  man's  hand 
at  so  cheap  a  rate  that  all  may  read  and 
know  the  extravagant  expenditure  and 
abuses  of  Van  Buren  and  his  satellites.  " 
And  Avith  cheerful  confidence  in  his  ability 
to  secure  subscribers,  he  asks  that  all  who 
are  opposed  to'^Van  Buren  will  send  him 
their  names  at  once  so  that  he  may  know 
*^how  many  thousand  cojjies  ol  the  paper 
We^may  start  with. 

The  "Thorn"  had  not  been  without  ef- 
fect on  the  college  campus.  All  things  are 
possible  in  politics,  and  the  marvel  in  this 
case  was  that  the  "Thorn"  apparently  be- 
gat the  "Thistle,"  a  manuscript  news- 
paper made  up  of  political  satire,  and 
circulated,  says  one  of  its  undergraduate 
editors  in  his  reminiscences,  "by  the  aid  of 
the  long  entries  of  Nassau  Hall  and  the 
small  hours  of  the  night."  The  success 
of  the  "Thistle"  led  to  a  more  ambitious 
effort,  and  in  the  winter  of  1834-35  four 
or  five  numbers  of  a  small  eight  page 
quarto  called  the  "Chameleon,"  edited  by 
members    of   the    class    of    1835.    were    is- 

31 


siRcl  from  the  local  press.  The  only  re- 
mains of  the  "Chameleon"  seem  to  be  a 
fragrant  memory  and  an  "Extra,"  pub- 
lished in  August,  1835,  consisting  of  a  long 
poem  on  a  galley-slip,  announcing  its 
demise.  With  the  passing  of  this  effort, 
undergraduate  literary  activity,  so  far  as 
publication  is  concerned,  ceased  until,  in 
18iO.  John  Bogart's  press  issued  the  "Gem 
from  Nassau's  Casket,"  a  daintily  printed 
little  octavo  magazine  of  four  double  col- 
umn pages,  purely  literary  and  serious  in 
character.  The  "Gem"  gleamed  more  or 
less  serenely  for  a  very  brief  day,  and  then 
joined  the  defunct  "Chameleon." 

On  Mr.  Bogart's  death  ^Mr.  Hornor  en- 
joyed a  jjractical  monopoly;  but,  while  his 
imprint  occurs  on  many  a  pamphlet  of  the 
early  forties,  most  of  his  attention  was 
given  to  politics  and  the  "Princeton  Whig." 

One  product  of  his  press,  however,  the 
"Nassau  ISIonthly,"  whose  first  number 
came  out  in  February  1842,  the  unmistak- 
able and  robuster  offspring  of  the  "Gem," 
cannot  be  ignored,  even  in  this  scant  sur- 
vey. By  no  means  so  engaging  in  appear- 
ance as  its  parent,  it  nevertheless  had  the 

32 


elusive  quality  of  permanence  that  the  ear- 
lier periodical  lacked.  The  "Nassau  Mon- 
thly," re-baptised  as  the  "Nassau  Liter- 
ary Magazine,  "  has  never  been  conspicu- 
ous for  beauty  on  the  formal  side,  and  is 
not  comparable  with  the  "Gem"  in  looks. 
But  it  has  lived  seventy  years  and,  with 
the  exception  q{  the  "Yale  Literary  Maga- 
zine," is  the  oldest  undergraduate  publi- 
cation of  its  kind  in  the  countrv. 
"  The  campaign  of  181i  gave  ISIr.  Hornor 
another  rare  opportunity,  of  which  he 
made  the  utmost  by  issuing  a  lively  four- 
page  quarto  of  three  colvimns  to  the  page, 
called  the  "Jersey  Blue,"  a  name  the  edi- 
tor may  or  may  not  have  known  as  the 
title  of  a  rollicking  eighteenth  century 
Princeton  song.  It  was,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, devoted  to  the  Whig  cause  and  was 
intended  to  bear  especially  on  the  state 
elections  of  that  autumn,  and  when  they 
were  over  to  aid  the  election  of  Clay  and 
Frelinghuysen.  The  opening  number 
made  this  announcement  of  policy: 

"It  will  be  fearless  in  advocating  that 
which  is  considered  right.  While  it  will 
concede  to  all  men  and  all  monopolies  tluir 

33 


rights  and  i)rivilegeS;  it  will  by  no  means 
allow  itself  to  swerve  from  an  independ- 
ent and  dignified  bearing.  It  will  deal 
with  the  rich  as  with  the  poor.  The  sov- 
ereignty of  the  people  will  be  defended 
rather  than  the  sovereignty  of  particular 
individuals  or  families.  xA.ll  party  excess 
will  be  discouraged,  while  true  patriotic 
zeal  will  be  incited.    Who  will  help  us?" 

Supporting  Charles  C.  Stratton  for  Gov- 
ernor, the  "Jersey  Blue"  attacked  with  all 
its  might — and  Mr.  Hoi*nor  had  not  mis- 
laid the  "Thorn's"  pointed  pen — the  can- 
didacy of  John  R.  Thomson  of  Princeton, 
turning  to  good  political  account  his  con- 
nection with  the  Delaware  and  Raritan 
Canal  Company,  and  at  the  same  time  it 
fired  broadsides  at  Captain — later  Commo- 
dore— R.  F.  Stockton,  the  leader  of  the 
Loco  Foco  party  in  the  State,  finding  in 
his  naval  and  political  record  and  in  his 
connection  M'ith  the  ill-fated  gunboat 
"Princeton"  plenty  of  campaign  ammuni- 
tion. 

Meanwhile,  side  by  side  with  Mr.  Hor- 
nor  was  working  the  man  whose  family 
name  was  to  be  connected  with  Prince- 
ton jjrinting  for  over  half  a  century — Mr. 

S4 


John  T.  Robinson.  A  Princeton  boy,  he 
had  learned  his  trade  of  Hornor  and  was 
a  self-made  man  who  came  to  be  one  of 
the  foremost  of  Princeton's  citizens.  Be- 
sides various  township  positions,  he  oc- 
cupied the  offices  of  Judge  of  Mercer 
County  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  Mayor 
of  Princeton,  and  Postmaster.  Of  a  me- 
chanical turn'''T»f  mind,  he  invented  a  press 
which  he  named  the  Princeton  Press, 
'erecting  his  own  machine-shop  and  foun- 
*8^y  for  its  manufacture.  He  used  one  of 
his  presses  for  the  production  of  the  local 
paper,  and  sold  several  through  the  coun- 
try. Just  as  he  was  about  to  reap  the 
reward  of  his  labor,  a  fire  (June  1855) 
destroyed  his  whole  plant,  foundry,  ma- 
chine-shop, office,  books,  papers,  and  eight 
I^resses  being  a  total  loss.  In  his  own 
words,  there  was  "not  a  vestige  of  a 
printing  office  left."  The  day  after  the 
fire,  the  "Mercer  County  Mirror,"  a  rival 
office,  issued  for  ^Mr.  Robinson  on  a  gal- 
ley-slip a  pathetic  "Princeton  Press  Ex- 
tra," announcing  the  disaster  and  ajDolo- 
gizing  for  the  non-appearence  of  the  paper 
that  week.     Mr.  Robinson  bravely  rebuilt 

35 


the  plant  and  continued  his  work,  but  un- 
der great  financial  difficult}-. 

He  had  bought  the  "Princeton  Whig," 
office  and  paper,  from  Mr.  Hornor  in  18i2, 
the  latter  retaining  for  his  own  use  an  in- 
side column  of  the  paper,  and  in  1854<, 
three  years  after  Hornor's  death,  he  had 
changed  the  name  to  the  "Princeton 
Press."  In  1861  the  "Press"  and  a 
younger  paper  known  as  the  "Princeton 
Standard"  were  consolidated,  Mr.  Robin- 
son selling  out  Iiis  share  in  the  older 
paper,  but  continuing  as  printer  for  the 
new  "Standard."  When  he  died  in  1862, 
his  son,  John  A.  Robinson,  succeeded  to 
the  office  and,  on  liis  premature  death  in 
1866,  the  firm  was  carried  on  as  C.  S. 
Robinson  &  Company  by  Charles  S.  and 
Harve}'^  1..,  two  younger  brothers,  whose 
civic  spirit,  not  only  in  conducting  a  week- 
ly newspaper  for  many  years  at  per- 
sonal sacrifice,  but  also  in  filling  various 
public  offices,  is  too  well  known  to  need 
more  than  mention  here.  Under  the  new 
management  the  old  name  of  the  office 
was   restored. 

The  volume  of  printing  for  the  College 

36 


had  increased  rapidly  since  tlie  thirties. 
The  method  of  liolding  written  examina- 
tions from  ])rinted  papers  was  instituted 
in  1839.  and  some  of  the  contemporary 
question-papers,  witli  their  borders  heavily 
decorated  in  well-meant  attem))t  to  sugar 
the  pill  and  <j;i\e  some  touch  of  charm  to 
documents  otherwise  unpopul.ir,  would 
provoke  the  -i^ibounded  derision  of  the 
modern  luidergraduate.  Commencement 
*.^j)rogrammes  became  more  elaborate,  and 
*  --t)r«uglit  with  tliejn  the  programmes  of 
Sophomore  and  Freshman  Commence- 
ments, issued  usually  without  imprints 
but  unmistakably  of  local  workmanship. 
Of  these,  each  year  showed  its  regidar 
sheaf.  Publications  more  academic  in 
character  became  fairly  frequent,  such  as 
tlie  "Glossary  of  Geological  Terms"  pre- 
jjared  in  18H,  a  forerunner  of  the  modern 
syllabus,  or  the  ISli  collection  of  five 
years'  "Examination  Papers  in  the  Mathe- 
matical course  of  the  College  of  New  Jer- 
sey, "  or  Professor  Stephen  Alexander's 
syllabus  on  Astronomy  (IHl',")).  which 
went  into  a  second  edition. 

Historical    work    is    represented    by    W. 

37 


A.  Dod's  "History  of  the  Collect-  of  New 
Jersey"  (ISii),  and  by  Archibald  Alex- 
ander's "Biographical  sketehes  of  the 
founder  and  principal  alumni  of  the  Log 
College"  (18i5).  A  particularly  inter- 
esting relic  of  a  lost  department  in  the 
Universit}'  is  the  circular,  dated  August 
18J<(),  announcing  the  organization  of  the 
short-lived  Law  School.  The  sempiternal 
oratorical  exercises  of  the  College  take  on 
dignity,  and  the  printed  progrannnes  for 
each  division  of  the  classes  create  a  con- 
tiruious  succession  of  leafllets  of  varying- 
size ;  M-hile  the  gentle  stre.-im  of  annual 
and  triennial  catalogues  of  College  and 
Seminary  flows  on  unceasingly.  Reading 
more  entertaining  in  content,  and  some  of 
it  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  literature. 
is  found  in  the  annual  addresses  delivered 
before'  the  Alumni  Association  at  Com- 
mencement, or  in  the  addresses  before  the 
Halls,  a  few  of  which,  running  into  two 
and  three  editions,  of¥er  points  of  particu- 
lar interest  to  collectors  and  the  biblio- 
graphically  inclined.  A  fitful  gleam  of 
humor  is  flashed  into  the  dull  sky  of  col- 
leo;e    life    of   those    davs    bv    the    "College 


Tatler,"  a  quarto  sheet  of  four  pages, 
whose  first  issue  appeared  in  May  1845, 
and  whose  anonymous  editors  inform  the 
public  that  their  "object  is  the  promotion 
of  harmless  and  inoffensive  mirth,  to  en- 
liven us  during  the  long  and  dull  winter 
terms,  and  to  afford  some  theme  for  con- 
versation wlicp  all  others  have  run  com- 
jjletely  out."  The  contents  ai-e  satires  on 
*  -    campus    and   town. 

,  --i-^An  odd  absence  is  that  of  almanacs. 
Only  one  has  been  found — that  of  184i, 
bearing  the  title  "Uncle  Een's  New  Jer- 
sey Almanac,"  and  published  by  Hornor, 
a  sixty-four  page  aft'air  closely  resembling 
otlier  almanacs  of  the  period.  It  is  al- 
most needless  to  add  that  Mr.  Hornoi- 
did  not  let  pass  so  excellent  a  chance  foi- 
political  propagandisni  without  getting  in- 
some  heavy  body-blows  at  the  opposite 
party. 

But  perhaps  the  rarest  bit  of  jirinting- 

done  by  the  press  of  the  "Princeton  Whig" 

is   the   official    invitation    to   the   ctiiteiniial 

celebration   of  the   College   in   June.    1817. 

NASSAU  HALL 

The    graduates    of    the    (Oncgr    of    Xew 

39 


Jersey   are   respectfully    invited   to   attend 
the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  their  Ahna 
Mater   on   the   •i!9tli   and   .SOth   instants. 
James  Carxahan,  President. 

At  12i/>  o'clock  P.  M.  on  Tuesday 
an  address  will  be  delivered  by  Hon. 
Cheif  Justice  Green,  of  New  Jersey.  At 
four  o'clock  the  Centenary  discourse  will 
be  delivered  by  Rev.  Dr.  James  W.  Alex- 
ander of  New  York.  At  8  o'clock.  P.  M. 
several  orations  will  be  ])ron()unced  by 
members  of  the  Junior  Class;  and  the 
usual  exercises  of  Commencement  will  be- 
gin at  9  o'clock.  Wednesday  morning. 

The  advance  in  standards  of  taste  and 
dignity  tliat  fifty  years  liave  wrought  is 
.strikingly  shown  by  the  contrast  between 
the  little  sli])  of  i)a])er  of  1 8 47  with  its 
typographical  error,  and  the  engraved  in- 
vitation to  the  Sesquicentennial  in  1896. 
or  by  a  com))arison  of  the  modest  thirty- 
six  })age  ])amphlet.  giving  an  account  of 
"The  First  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the 
College  of  New  Jersey,"  with  the  sump- 
tuous Sesquicentennial  Book  commemor- 
ating the  celebration  of  1896.  Despite  the 
])ossible  touch  of  lurking  ])ride  in  the 
])hrase    "firsf    centennial,"    nothing    could 

40 


more  clearh^  illustrate  the  difference  be- 
tween the  old  Princeton  and  tlie  new,  the 
Princeton  of  frame  houses  and  ill-paved 
streets,  of  unkempt  campus  and  narrow, 
lifeless,  collegiate  monotony,  and  the 
prouder  twentieth-century  Princeton  to 
which  the  Sesquicentennial  opened  the  por- 
tals. -  "^ 

At  the  end  of  the  forties  tliere  came 
**i^^  into  prominence  a  new  bookseller  and 
'  ""i -publisher,  George  Thompson,  whose  series 
of  translations  from  the  classics  must  have 
made  him  j^opular  in  his  day.  but  wlio  is 
probably  best  known  to  the  modern  gen- 
eration as  tlie  ])ublisher  of  a  highly  col- 
ored and  nnieli  prized  lithograph  of  Nas- 
sau Hall.  In  lSJ-7  he  issued  what  he 
claimed  to  be  the  first  American  transla- 
tion of  tlie  Iliad,  in  1849  a  translation  of 
the  "Germania"  of  Tacitus,  in  ISoO  a 
Juvenal  and  a  Persius.  and  in  1851  Dem- 
osthenes "On  the  Crown." 

From  this  time  on,  the  Robinson  rirm 
has  done  most  of  the  printing  business  of 
Princeton,  with  lu're  and  there  a  tempor- 
ary eonijjetitor  such  as  the  "Mercer 
C'ountv  Mirror"  office,  established  bv  Mr. 


11 


Howard  V.  Hiilfish  in  the  iniddlf  fifties 
and  continued  after  his  death  as  the  office 
of  the  "Princeton  Standard",  whose  event- 
ual consolidation  with  the  "Princeton 
Press"    has    already   been   mentioned. 

jNIr.  Hultish  had  learned  his  trade  from 
Mr.  John  T.  Robinson,  and  in  the  office  of 
C  S.  Robinson  &  Co.,  the  founder  of 
the  Zapf  Press  similarly  gained  his  early 
ex})erience.  Addino-  to  that  training  a 
year  with  DeVinne  of  New  York,  Mr.  W. 
C.  C.  Za]if  oi)cned  his  office  in  1890  with- 
in a  door  ov  two  of  the  ])lace  where  Tod 
had  set  xip  the  "Packet,"  and  for  the  next 
sixteen  years  he  made  a  specialty  of  un- 
dergraduate work.  The  "Alumni  Prince- 
tonian."  begun  in  1891  as  a  weekly  com- 
panion to  the  "Daily  Princetonian,"  and 
in  1900  reorganized  as  the  "Princeton 
Alumni  Weekly"  by  the  Princeton  Pub- 
lishing Comjjany.  a  corporation  formed 
for  that  purpose,  was  printed  at  the  Zapf 
Press  until  1906.  The  "Nassau  laterary 
^Magazine"  and  the  "Tiger,"  the  Triangle 
Club.  Glee  C'lul),  and  Athletic  Association 
work  Avcrc  handled  by  the  Zapf  Press  for 
several.   Acars,   as    also   were   some   of   the 


42 


publications  of  Law  roiiccvilk'  School.  An 
interesting  fact  is  that  in  the  early  days, 
when  he  was  still  in  the  Princeton  Press 
office.  Mr.  Zapi  did  the  first  nnisic  printing- 
done  in  Princeton. 

The  Princeton  Press  was  run  by  C. 
S.  Robinson  &  Couipanv  until  1906.  when 
the  oppormnit^'  for  a  university  press, 
forcing  itself  home  on  a  group  of  alumni 
*•-<  who  had  long  cherished  the  idea,  resulted 
'  -•"in  the  organization  of  a  stock  company, 
the  Princeton  University  Press,  to  test  the 
feasibility  of  maintaining  a  press  which 
should  not  only  serve  the  University  but 
also  be  self-supporting.  The  Zapf  Press 
and  the  plant  of  C.  S.  Robinson  &  Com- 
2)any  were  acquired,  and  to  this  equipment 
iidditions  were  made  as  business  demanded. 
After  four  years'  trial,  whieli  carried  the 
jiroject  well  beyond  the  experimental 
stage,  tlie  Princeton  University-  Press 
found  itself  firmly  establislied  and  of 
proved  usefulness,  and  needing  only  a 
larger  and  more  modern  equipment,  and 
a  building  architecturally  adequate.  Both 
necessities  lia\e  now  been  provided  through 
the    generosity    of    one     who    lias    largelv 

43 


guided  the  experiment  from  the  beginning. 
In  planning  the  building,  the  architect, 
Mr.  Ernest  Flagg  of  New  York,  has  com- 
bined aesthetic  and  utilitarian  principles 
in  a  structure  which  should  not  only 
help  to  maintain  the  modern  style  of 
Princeton  academic  architecture,  but  at  the 
same  time  give  a  maximum  of  light  and 
air  and  the  most  convenient  arrangement 
for  the  working  departments  and  offices 
of  a  large  printing  and  publishing  estab- 
lishment. The  building  is  of  local  stone, 
such  as  has  been  used  so  successfully  in 
recent  buildings  on  the  campus.  It  is  one 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  feet  long  and  a 
hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  wide,  and  is 
planned  in  the  form  of  the  letter  H,  with 
a  large  court,  about  seventy-three  feet 
square  and  separated  from  the  street  by 
a  battlemented  wall.  To  this  court  ac- 
cess is  gained  through  a  Tudor  gateway 
bearing  tlie  seal  of  the  Press.  On  the 
sides  of  the  court  are  the  main  offices, 
with  other  large  office  rooms.  Here  too 
are  the  separate  editorial  rooms  of  the 
"Princeton  Alumni  Weekly."  Opposite 
the   entrance,   and   in   the   cross   section   of 


it 


the   H,   is    a   large   hall,   one    hundred   and 
twenty-eight  feet  by  forty-two.  with  open 
timber    trussed     roof,     forty     feet     to     the 
ridge.       This     hall    eontains    the    presses, 
linotypes  and  other  machinery  of  a  com- 
Ijlete  modern  press   and   composing  room. 
Tlie    bindery,    mailing    department,    stock 
rooms,    etc.*    are    located    in    the    adjacent 
wings. 
■-■         A   word   or   two   may   be   said   about   the 
-•■^various  lines  of  work  in  which  the  Prince- 
ton University  Press  is  engaged.     Among 
the  regular  issues  of  this  office  at  one  time 
or  another  have  been  most  of  the  under- 
graduate publications,  chief  of  which  still 
is  the  "Daily  Princetonian,"  begun  in  1876 
as  the  bi-weekly  "Princetonian."  becoming 
a  weekly  in  1883,  a  bi-daily  in   188,").  and 
a    daily    in    1892.      Since    190(3    the    Uni- 
versity Press  has  also  jirinted  the  "Prince- 
ton Alumni  Weekly,"  the  successor  of  the 
"Alumni   Princetonian."      The   fifteen  vol- 
umes of  the  discontinued  Faculty  journal, 
the  "Princeton  University  Bulletin."  came 
from    its    com])osing    room;    it    has    issued 
numerous  club  books  for  organizations  here 
and  elsewhere,  and  it  makes  a  specialty  of 

if) 


tlir  publication  of  class  records.  The  "Of- 
ficial Register  of  Princeton  University  is 
})rinted  by  the  Press,  and  in  addition,  it 
liandles  sixteen  weekly,  monthly  or  quar- 
terly ])ublications.  Among  these  may  be 
mentioned  the  "Bulletin  of  the  American 
Economic  Association,"  the  "Classical 
AVeekly."  the  "Psychological  Monographs," 
and  the  "Princeton  Theological  Review." 
In  addition  to  work  of  this  character,  the 
Press  has  turned  out  many  individual  vol- 
umes, privately  printed  for  their  authors, 
or  issued  by  private  publishing  organiza- 
tions such  as  the  Princeton  Historical  As- 
sociation,  etc. 

Although  the  official  printing  of  the 
University  will  continue  to  be  its  first 
care,  that  work  alone  will  not  be  able  to 
keep  the  new  ])lant  in  exclusive  operation; 
and.  with  its  enlarged  facilities  and  the 
installation  of  the  most  modern  equiinnent, 
the  Press  is  ])re))ared  to  do  a  volume  of 
outsidr  ])rinting  that  shall  be  larger  than 
ever.  Reincorporated  in  October  1910  un- 
der the  act  ])roviding  for  "associations  not 
for  ])eeuniary  ])rofit."  the  new  Princeton 
Universitv  Press  is  brought  into  very  close 


h6 


relation  with  tlit-  body  whose  name  it 
bears.  In  the  words  of  its  charter  its  pur- 
pose is  two-fold:  "in  the  interests  of 
Princeton  University  to  maintain  and  oper- 
ate a  printing  and  publishing  plant  for  the 
l)romotion  of  education  and  scholarship, 
and  to  serve  the  University  by  manufac- 
turing anf^  distributing  its  publications." 
With  tills  high  purjjose  before  it,  the 
Press  enters  its  new  career. 

The  members  of  the  Council  are  Messrs. 
Charles  Scribner,  president,  ^I.  Taylor 
Pyne,  vice  president,  C.  Whitney  Darrow. 
secretary,  Clarence  B.  Mitchell,  treasurer. 
Robert  Bridges,  George  W.  Burleigh, 
Parker  D.  Handy,  ,Tolin  G.  Hibben. 
Cliarles  W.  :McAlpin.  Archibald  D.  Rus- 
sell, Artluir  H.  wScribner,  Augustus  Trow- 
bridge, and  Andrew  F.  West.  The  Man- 
ager is  Mr.   C.  AVhitnev   Darrow. 


47 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


^ 


0'' 


.PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


z 
P9 


